"I need a man good-looking enough to
pick up a dame who has a sense of class, but he's got to be tough
enough to swap punches with a power shovel. I need a guy who can
backchat like Fred Allen, only better, and get hit on the head with a
beer truck and think some cutie in the leg-line topped him with a
breadstick. "

As a job description, Raymond Chandler's sketch of a private eye is
irresistiblethe urban gunslinger with all...